CITs, he said, would comprise a director, additional director, investigation officer and a senior legal counsel.

Stressing the need for rooting out corruption, Javed Iqbal said that NAB had devised a proactive anti-corruption strategy, especially a new operational methodology, by dividing all case proceedings into three categories: complaint verification, inquiry and investigation.

Citing various figures, he said that the number of complaints, inquiries and investigations had almost doubled this year against the same period in the 2017-2018.

Quoting from a report compiled by PILDAT, he said that 42 per cent of people trusted NAB against 42 per cent trust ratio for police and 29 per cent for other government officials.

Citing another report compiled by Transparency International, he said that Pakistan’s ranking in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) had risen from 126 to 116.

Pakistan, he said, was a role model for SAARC countries in corruption eradication and because of this it was made the first chairman of SAARC countries’ Anti-Corruption Forum.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) and Mishal Pakistan ranked Pakistan at 126th on the Global Competitiveness Index. Previously, the country was at 122nd place.

He said that NAB had set up its first forensic science lab in Rawalpindi/Islamabad, possessing advanced facilities such as digital forensics, document and fingerprint analysis.

On the bilateral cooperation front, NAB had signed an MoU with China, broadening cooperation in the field of anti-corruption.